MIX 11: Microsoft Shows Off Next Windows Phone Update

At its MIX 11 conference today, Microsoft previewed the next version of Windows Phone, which it said would be shipping for both new and existing handsets later this year, and it showed a new development platform for that release, due out next month. It said operators and handset makers are working on deploying the most recent update.

At its MIX 11 conference today, Microsoft previewed the next version of Windows Phone, which it said would be shipping for both new and existing handsets later this year, and it showed a new development platform for that release, due out next month. It said operators and handset makers are working on deploying the most recent update.

The next version, called Mango, is slated to work on all existing Windows Phone 7 handsets, along with new phones. While the talk was aimed at developers, Microsoft showed off a variety of platform features, including application multitasking for background processing, audio, and file transfer. Other new features are faster application switching and deeper phone integration, so applications can take better advantage of Live Tiles and other OS features (including a SQL database and access to contacts and calendar features), as well as direct access to the camera, compass, and gyroscope.

Perhaps most interestingly, the company showed off Internet Explorer 9 running on the phone, and pushed how much faster IE9 was because it supports hardware acceleration.

Microsoft corporate VP Joe Belfiore for Windows Phone program management, talked about recent projections from IDC and Gartner that Windows Phone would be the second largest phone ecosystem within a few years, due in part to Microsoft's deal with Nokia. Marco Argenti, Nokia's Head of Developer Experience urged Symbian developers to work on the Windows Phone platform and talked about the important of mobile billing.

Belfiore started by focusing on content and commerce and said the Mango release will support 16 more languages (including many Asian languages) and increase the number of countries where developers can summit applications from 30 to 38 and where users can buy applications from 15 to 35.

Belfiore showed off the new ways of scrolling through lots of apps with jumplists (such as typing the first letter) and search capabilities specifically aimed at applications in the Marketplace. In addition, the Marketplace was redesigned to more easily show reviews and related apps and to make purchase and installation easier.

In one demo, Belfiore showed "search extras." While searching for movies, you saw current local movies listed, but also now there was an extra "pivot" (or screen) that showed related applications, such as the IMDB app. When you launch IMDB, it can deep link directly to the film you were looking at.

Next, Belfiore discussed the browser, saying IE 9 on Windows Phone was the same code as that used in Windows for PCs, although he did say things like graphics acceleration are faster on PCs, because they have higher end graphics hardware. He showed HTML5 audio playing in a browser window, even in the background, and HTML5 video directly from the current Boston.com website. (In addition, the address bar now goes to the bottom of the screen in landscape mode.)

He then did a demo of a Windows Phone vs. a Nexus S running Android and an iPhone 4, showing how much faster Windows Phone is in an HTML5 speed test.

On more consumer applications, Belfiore showed off podcast support and how the platform lets you scan bar codes (including the ability to have this as a Tile on the home page that directly links to that function) and how this links to Amazon Shopping. He also said Skype was coming to Windows Phone this fall.

Belfiore showed off "Motion Sensor," which integrates the compass and gyro to make it easier to create "augmented reality" applications.

On multitasking, he said fast application switching would suspend most applications with instant resume (which sounds like how this works on an iPhone) and said background services, such as audio, downloads, and alarms, would be implemented so they are more battery efficient. He showed an early version of Spotify with music running in the background and Angry Birds (which he said would be out May 25th). Belfiore talked about "Live Agents" that developers create to run in the background, but that are managed by a common scheduler, so they don't drain the battery or force users to kill tasks manually.

He showed off an application from Quantas, in which tiles indicate whether flights are available for check-in, on-time, or late. Most interestingly, it will turn red if the application knows (from your location) that you're likely to be late for the plane.

On the current update (which adds cut, copy and paste features), Belfiore said he was wrong when he thought most people would have it by now. He claimed the update was later because of issues with the phones as they were actually manufactured, including a lot of little issues, such as devices that had accidentally been shipped indicating they had the original software installed incorrectly.

He believes mobile operators have a good reason for thoroughly testing updates before they ship them. He also noted Microsoft provides the updates but then had to wait for each operator, which is why some people have it and some don't. Microsoft has learned from the process and is trying to get better at communicating to end-users about updates, he says.

Microsoft's Scott Guthrie then showed off the developer tools, including Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone. He revealed a profiler and various tools to track how an application is using memory and resources, which look like good ways of improving applications.

In particular, Guthrie talked about performance improvements in scrolling, input, and image decoding, along with improved garbage collection and memory usage features for developers. New features he highlighted include an internal SQL CE database, which was displayed in a demo of how the Feed Reader application today allows for offline support by storing the feeds manually, but how in Mango using the SQL CE database and features let the product use 30 percent less code and add additional features such as search. Other improvements include support for network sockets, which he showed with a demo of an IRC client.

Mike Roberts from Kik Interactive displayed a version of Kik on Windows Phone--due in the coming weeks--showing how you can share photos and invite multiple people to a conversation. He said the multiplatform chat application received 1 million users in the first two weeks and now has 4 million total users. But more interestingly, he showed how Kik could be integrated with the basic Windows Phone user interface and said the company was able to write the Windows Phone version in half the time it took on other platforms.

USAA demonstrated how an upcoming version of their application would allow for direct deposit of checks by taking a photo of it within the application itself.

Guthrie also showed how Mango now lets game and graphics developers combine Silverlight and XNA in the same application. He said in total the new version has more than 1500 new APIs.

Michael J. Miller's Forward Thinking Blog: forwardthinking.pcmag.com
Michael J. Miller is chief information officer at Ziff Brothers Investments, a private investment firm. From 1991 to 2005, Miller was editor-in-chief of PC Magazine, responsible for the editorial direction, quality and presentation of the world's largest computer publication.
Until late 2006, Miller was the Chief Content Officer for Ziff Davis Media, responsible for overseeing the editorial positions of Ziff Davis's magazines, websites, and events. As Editorial Director for Ziff Davis Publishing since 1997, Miller took an active role in...
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